After a three-day trial, a Houston federal jury has convicted a 64-year-old home health agency owner for leading a Medicare fraud and identity theft scheme. According to a press release by the U.S. Attorney's Office, it took the jury less than two hours to find Paul Njoku guilty of all charges presented against him.
As the owner and CEO of Opnet Health Care Services Inc., which also operated under the name P & P Health Care Services, Njoku stood accused of orchestrating a fraudulent operation that saw him forging the signatures of healthcare professionals. After several hours of deliberation, the jury reviewed witness testimonies describing how Njoku, or individuals acting under his direction, allegedly copied signatures from former doctors and nurses onto newly created medical documents to satisfy Medicare’s documentation requirements for home health service payments.
These falsifications were submitted to Medicare in response to documentation requests and involved more than just historical signatures. One registered nurse's signature, who had left Opnet back in 2017, continued to be used on nursing notes and assessments in the following years without her knowledge or consent. Adding to the deceit, the trial also revealed that Njoku had engaged in bribery, paying a doctor to approve home health services that were not properly documented.
From 2015 until 2019, Opnet billed Medicare for upwards of $400,000, of which it received over $360,000, as per the U.S. Attorney's Office release. Many of these claims, the testimony showed, were unsupported by the required paperwork and upon investigation, produced falsified documents to support the claims. During the trial, Medicaid would not have paid these claims, said a representative, had they known about the missing documentation or the use of falsified records.
The defense’s attempt to shift responsibility to another individual did not influence the jury’s verdict. Njoku now faces potential penalties including up to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud, five years for each of two counts of making false statements related to health care, and an additional two years for identity theft, which is to be served consecutively to any other sentence. He also faces possible fines of up to $250,000 per count, pending sentencing. In the meantime, Njoku remains out on bond.
The FBI, Department of Health and Human Services-Office of the Inspector General, and the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit are credited for their roles in the investigation with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christian Latham and Kathryn Olson tasked with prosecuting the case. U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett, who presided over the trial, will be establishing a sentencing date for Njoku later on.
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